FILE – In this Nov. 12, 2010, file photo, Shelly Sterling sits with her husband, Donald Sterling, right, during the Los Angeles Clippers’ NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons in Los Angeles. Shelly Sterling’s attorneys have asked a court on Thursday June 19, 2014, to hold a hearing on allegations that Donald Sterling and his attorneys have threatened her legal team and the doctors who assert that the Los Angeles Clippers co-owner is mentally incapacitated.

Sterling was ordered to take the witness stand after failing to appear for the start of the lawsuit trial on Monday afternoon. His lawyers are challenging the authority of Shelly Sterling under a family trust to unilaterally cut a deal for the team with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

In order to be able to make the deal herself, Shelly Sterling had two doctors examine her husband and they declared him mentally incapacitated and unable to act as an administrator of The Sterling Family Trust, which owns the Clippers.

The Sterlings sat across from each other in Superior Court as lawyers prepared to question the 80-year-old billionaire in the non-jury trial.

The NBA has moved to oust Sterling from team ownership because of racist remarks he made to a girlfriend, and a neurologist hired by his wife testified Monday that she believed he has Alzheimer’s disease.

A psychiatrist also hired by Shelly Sterling testified Tuesday that he drew the same conclusion after examining Sterling in May.

Dr. James Sparr said Sterling was friendly, relaxed and cooperative until a final question challenged his abilities.

A frustrated Sterling then said, “‘I have to go,’ and walked out of the room,” Sparr said.

Sparr’s report concluded that Sterling showed early signs of the debilitating mental condition and concluded that “he is substantially unable to manage his finances and resist fraud and malfeasance and is no longer competent to act as a trustee of his trust.”

WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.